Life Dungeon Game

“76,” Carlin paused, “that’s the number of survivors.”

He didn't know how many people had entered this place, but of those who remained, only seventy-six were still alive.

The group moved quickly, passing through the cubicle area and arriving at the back of the hall in a short time.

Two enormous machines, each five or six meters wide, are placed here.

He glanced at the text on the machine.

As he expected, the machines were still labeled with instructions in five different languages.

He Ao easily found the text in the second section and learned the names of the two machines.

[Synthetic Starch Nutritional Bar Production Machine (Carbon Dioxide Fixation Type)], [Synthetic Meat Production Machine (Contamination Removal Type)]

Both machines are currently showing red lights, indicating a lack of consumables such as 'synthetic vitamins', 'minerals', and 'biodegradable packaging plastics'.

“We don’t know what these two machines do,”

Kalin walked to the machine on the left and pressed the most conspicuous green button on the machine.

boom--

With a loud roar, a silver opening at the front of the machine opened, and a white rod-shaped object fell out of the machine.

"This is?"

Fia stared wide-eyed at this amazing scene.

"food,"

Kalin took out the stick-like object, gently pried it open, revealing an interior resembling osmanthus cake. "It looks a bit like a pastry made from some kind of rice flour. It's edible; we rely on this to survive."

"How is this done?"

Fia was clearly struggling to keep up. Looking at the enormous machine in front of her, she asked, "Does this thing store food? Can it store it for so long?"

"have no idea,"

Kalin shook his head. "There's always plenty of food here. They produce so much every day, it's like they can never take it all."

"It might be able to produce food itself,"

He Ao glanced at the machine and casually said, "For example, fixing carbon dioxide in the air into starch."

When he said that, both of them were taken aback.

It wasn't that He Ao's point of view broadened their thinking; rather, judging from their blank stares, He Ao felt that they might not have understood.

He thought for a moment, then organized his thoughts.

"Strictly speaking, photosynthesis in plants is the process of fixing water and carbon dioxide into organic matter such as glucose and starch. The flour and rice we eat are 'produced' through photosynthesis in this way."

"This machine might be the kind that can extract raw materials from the air and produce flour."

"Oh! I see!"

Fia clapped her hands, her gray-brown pupils behind her thin glasses gleaming with wisdom. "Let's take a look at this machine over there."

"cough."

Kalin coughed. Although he didn't fully understand, he grasped Heo's 'metaphor' and realized that the machine they had been relying on might be a lifeless 'plant'.

At that moment, he noticed that He Ao's gaze had also shifted to the machine next to him.

So he walked to the machine on the right and introduced it, "This machine and..."

This machine is different. It can't produce food on its own, but if we throw in the poisonous meat from those monsters outside, it can produce 'meat chunks' that we can eat.

"It sounds like a machine that can remove some kind of harmful substance,"

He glanced at the 'decontamination' note on the machine, then looked at Kalin and continued, "Doesn't this mean you need to go out and 'hunt' yourselves?"

"Yes."

Kalin nodded and raised the Gauss gun hanging on his chest. "This is a weapon we found in this hall. We don't know how it works, but it has a long range and great power."

Then he sighed, “When we first found this place, there were only a few of us. We ate those white rice noodle blocks and occasionally went out to hunt, which was enough to survive. But now there are more and more people, especially in the last month. The rice noodle blocks are not enough to eat, so we have to go out hunting every day.”

"Ah."

He looked up at the two machines.

With these two machines in place, there will certainly be no food shortage here, at least not a shortage that would force everyone to leave.

That gate can withstand the impact of a peak C-level monster.

So why did those 'survivors' who once lived here leave en masse?

Seeing that He Ao seemed to be deep in thought, Kalin glanced at Fia beside him and asked in a low voice, "Still don't know your names?"

“Fiya”.

Fia introduced herself briefly.

"Heo,"

He lowered his head and introduced himself, then looked at Kalin's body and asked thoughtfully, "You've become a superhuman?"

According to the research institute's records, Kalin was just an ordinary person.

"Yes,"

Kalin seemed to recall something and sighed slightly. "When I first arrived here, I hadn't found this hall yet. I was so hungry that I encountered an injured monster. I ate some of its flesh and blood. I thought I was going to die, but I unexpectedly survived and even gained some extraordinary powers. It's just that the process wasn't pleasant."

It seems that Kalin must have consumed the main material of a talent sequence from within a monster. Compared to using secret elixirs for advancement, this method of directly consuming the 'main material' can also lead to advancement, but the mortality rate is much higher and the stability is much worse.

Strictly speaking, Kalin is a very capable person with principles.

This 'settlement' already bears a resemblance to the wilderness wanderer tribes of the dungeon world. In such an environment fraught with danger, order and humanity are the most vulnerable to the test.

If someone else had been in charge of this place, it's unlikely that so many people would have survived.

Those who live here may not necessarily be able to stand up like humans.

"correct,"

After a brief pause, Kalin spoke up, asking, "Did you also come in through the 'door'? Have they already discovered our 'disappearance' outside?"

He paused, then asked the question he had always wanted to ask, "Is there a way for us to get back?"

This statement drew the attention of everyone in the entire settlement.

“Now, the city-state of Newland is full of open ‘doors’,”

He pondered for a moment and organized a...

The speaker continued, "We came in to investigate this matter. Only by resolving the issues behind it can we possibly return, and in this regard..."

He paused, looking at Karin, "We might need your help."

"Is there anything we can do for you?!"

Kalin immediately straightened up.

"Do you often hunt in this area? Are you familiar with this 'underground palace'?"

He Ao then asked.

"Underground Palace? That's a good name. We also suspect that the area we're in now is underground,"

Kalin thought for a moment, then nodded.

"As far as we know, this 'underground palace' has more than one level. Our main hunting area is on this level, which seems to be the top level and the largest level. We usually call this level the underground level."

"The monsters on this floor aren't strong. With a few of us working together, we can kill some of the smaller monsters. The monsters you just killed, we call them 'Sheep Demons,' but they're actually the 'overlords' of this floor. We usually avoid them. Under normal circumstances, if we're not injured, they don't seem to notice us."

"This time it was because a newcomer was attacked by a monster before he came in. He happened to pass by us and we rescued him, which is how he encountered the Sheep Demon."

The newcomer that Kalin mentioned should be the one Heo saw when he came in, the one sitting on the stool by the door with an injured arm.

He entered the underground palace a little before where He Ao had entered.

Kalin didn't go into detail about this person; emphasizing it too much now could easily lead to the troublesome newcomer being ostracized by the older members. So he only mentioned it briefly before continuing.

"Going along the corridor from the entrance of our settlement, after turning through a few corridors, there's an area that looks like a commercial district. You can find some 'medicines' and packaged compressed food there. We've basically explored the entire basement level,"

He looked at He Ao and said, "If you want to investigate the truth, you may need to go down a little. There are stairs and elevators next to the commercial area that lead to the second basement level."

"But the deeper you go in this place, the stronger the monsters become. There are many large, plant-like monsters on the second underground level, and the monsters that can move are also very strong. I've only been there once, and I almost lost half my life. But you should be able to do it easily."

Is there only two floors here?

"Fia asked from the side."

"No, there are actually three underground levels,"

Kalin shook his head. "Go down the stairs from the second basement level, walk a few dozen meters ahead, and after passing a partially closed gate, you'll see a damaged elevator and a broken stairwell door. That might lead to the third basement level, but I've never been there."

Then his gaze swept towards the gate. "The shape of the damaged stairwell door on the third basement level looks a bit like the collision of the 'Sheep Demon.' It could be very dangerous there."

"You mean, the Goat Demon might have come up from the third underground level?"

Fia added.

“Yes,” Kalin nodded, “That concludes our exploration of the ‘underground palace.’ As for whether there are other places below the third underground level, we have no idea.”

"Um,"

He nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Karin, "Could you please send someone to take us to the staircase from the basement to the second floor?"

"I'll bring some men to accompany you,"

Kalin paused for a moment, then quickly said, "We just happen to need to go hunting."

“Okay,” He Ao said with a smile, “then I’ll trouble you.”

-

Newland City-State, Vinland

"Due to unusual celestial phenomena, the entire city-state of Newland is currently under lockdown. Please stay home and do not go out. Do not open closed doors, and do not close open doors. Please do not open any closed doors unnecessarily. I repeat, please do not open any closed doors unnecessarily..."

A stern female voice announced something over the radio, the clock on the wall jumped to 15 p.m., and the white-haired old man looked up at the tightly closed window.

The sky remained a dark, gloomy night.

Tonight seems exceptionally long.